Nightmare Before Cheeseburgers - the Hayduke: part 2

The Hayduke is an 800 mile hiking route across the rugged backcountry of Utah and Arizona.

We started the Hayduke on April 2 and finished on June 7, 2024.

This 110 mile section began at the Needles Outpost and ended near the small town of Hanksville, Utah (cheeseburgers)!

Along the way we had two food/water caches to dig up. These caches helped us a lot.

In the last video (hayduke: part one), we struggled with drinking bad sulfur water 💀

In this video, four difficult (and beautiful) canyons beat us up🏜️

“Part Two” starts by hiking into the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. It’s a bizarre landscape with towering sandstone spires (needles) and a narrow slot canyon called “The Joint”

Then we were back to the remote backcountry where we saw almost no one. First up was Fable Canyon, where we found the best water source in 150 miles. After that, we descended steeply into Youngs Canyon. The navigation was confusing and we didn’t make it very far. Good thing a cozy campfire usually cheers us up.

The next day we hiked into Dark Canyon. We were out of food and didn’t make it to our food cache until dark. It took us a minute to find the spot we buried food, but eventually found it, dug it up, and had a very big dinner that night.

Fifteen miles later we had another food cache. The temptation to hitch into town from this spot was strong, but we decided to push on and hike back into the wilderness. We carried two gallons of water, but that wasn’t enough for the tricky dry section called “The Red Benches.” The benches were an endless series of hills and ledges, and we were very thirsty when finally climbing down into Fiddler Canyon and reaching the Dirty Devil River.

The river was pretty gross (it contains heavy metals), but it was wet and we were very thankful to drink. The next morning we bushwhacked up the river, crossing it twenty to thirty times, before reaching Poison Springs road, a 17 mile dirt road that eventually led us to Hanksville and cheeseburgers!

At this point, we had hiked 200 miles of the 800 mile route, with 600 miles left to go.

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favorite gear:
Shelter: https://zpacks.com
Pack: https://palantepacks.com
tiny e-pump: https://amzn.to/3WtIWWL

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We are amateurs to this whole video making thing, so if you have questions about the process, the gear, etc., let us know!

We love hearing y’alls questions about the trail, gear, or whatever’s on your mind :)

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